> Action leads to motivation, not the other way around.
I've found this to be very true. A trick I found that made this easier for me is to leave a trivial task to start tomorrow with, often with notes to remind myself what to do. Ideally the trivial task is on the way to something bigger, not finishing something. That gets me into my editor, gets me running the code / tests / etc., and gives me a trivially easy way to get moving. Then the motivation kicks in and I can start moving for real.
The same approach helps me with tasks outside of software development, and even outside of work.
When there are no clear tasks, I sometime leave a syntax error at the place work should continue tomorrow. This is quite effective. It can make the answer to the "Where was I?" question immediate instead of taking a few seconds and this is one fewer barrier.
Yes. It's funny how this kind of trick can instantly snap the entire working context back into your mind. Essentially leaving you free to forget about the context during your free time and overnight. Truly a useful "hack".
It's also useful to jot down a quick list of (say) three items that are at the top of your mind when you leave work for the day, and they too will help with a context restore.
> The magic of Git means you can immediately find them in the working index
How does git help you find certain texts in files? `grep` should do the trick just fine, unless I misunderstand what "chuck Todo comments in the code" mean, the code lives on your disk no?
Parent mentioned specifically finding them from the index, so they've been added but not committed, so they're not even remote nor have an author associated with it, yet.
And why it matters to get them from the diff if they're on disk already? Literally one command to find all of them, rather than going through git?
One advantage of git is it shows you any uncommitted changes. Great way to get context the next day of where you were up to anyway even if you didn't use TODO to make it searchable.
Grep works too. I just spend a lot of time in git or tools that wrap it. It's an unconscious habit to check the status and diffs when I open my editor.
Yeah I mean I use the git cli exclusively too, and use it switch contexts, but I'm not sure why'd I use it to find stuff that is already on disk. But, you do you, was just trying to understand if there was any benefits I didn't knew about :)
To get your bearings regarding where you got to with your uncommitted work, you might do something like:
git status && git diff HEAD
That will tell you which files you've touched and will show you their diffs. If necessary you can search within the diff: press '/' to bring up the search feature (assuming you're using the default less pager).
To search for all mentions of 'TODO' in the repo, ignoring untracked files:
I have a very involved `gq` alias that helps me find and finish pending work. It works either in the current repository or a folder containing multiple repositories.
Basically, my assumption is that `gq` should return empty, which means I have a clean slate, and can start taking on new work. Otherwise, there is ongoing work that needs attention.
It just lists:
* modified/untracked files
* stashed changes
* local-only branches (not tracking a remote branch)
* branches out-of-sync with their upstream (either ahead or behind)
* branches that aren't the main branch (even if tracking and in-sync with a remote upstream)
Getting this command to return empty is a surprisingly effective way to stay productive, especially when losing focus due to too much work.
It's basically inbox-zero for git.
But it only works if you like working with a clean worktree.
I know how to use git :P The question is why use git for something when the TODOs still sits in your files on disk. You're not doing anything with those commands that `grep` by itself cannot do...
Maybe this is implied, but I like to leave with a failing test that I know how to fix. That way I am not brooding on it all evening. Leaving when things are broken and I don't know why is frustrating.
I've done that too. Especially if I have to stop working, but I'm in the middle of something. There are no compilation errors or tests failing but the feature isn't completed.
Introducing a syntax error is like a saved game, portal back in time. I'll come back to it tomorrow and it'll take me max one minute to reload the context into my brain.
I do this also. My tweak is to make the syntax error just a sentence of what tiny step needs to be done next. Then the next day I turn that sentence into a comment, do what needs to be done next and then delete the comment. It me the dual endorphin hit of completing a task and deleting code.
That's Hemingway’s trick: “You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.”
there are so many different names for this. and time blocking. but it really works. small reminder. it works even when, like me, someone has serious case of ADHD. but its slightly different and there are extremes on both end. where it does not work or it works to well. but it always work. what I am trying to say if you feel its not efficient you still have to feel it out until you find how it works for you in whatever form it works.
Same, it's so much easier to quit just when you hit your limit and keep a 2 min window to bookmark your solution search and leave some potential follow ups. Makes restarting your job a lot easier.
It doesn't matter what I need to do, I start every day by building my code. It gets me typing commands in the terminal and more often than not there's a build error or warning I need to address
It most definitely does work the other way around. The problem of course is that you can’t just wait for motivation to appear. But you can start an action.
I’m just stating the obvious, but I find it odd that the author states the opposite isn’t true.
While directing actors on the film set one of the questions to ponder is whether you first need to put people into an emotional reality so they can produce gestures matching that reality or whether you tell them how to move and then they find their emotional reality within the movements.
In my experience both works and some actors prefer one and some the other. But you can try it yourself, think of a sad thing, slumb together make a sad gesture and listen (emotionally) what happens on the inside.
I remember being on a session with the pragmatic programmers (ie the people from the book) and they recommended making a compile error on purpose as the last thing one did before leaving work. The next day you compiled the code and get an error, fix this and they continue working. You are already doing work. This sets your mind on the right track from they day before. I gave used this a bit and it works pretty well.
I've personally found LLMs to be particularly helpful to get started with something I have trouble with: surely, they'll most certainly get it wrong (unless it's something trivial), but it gives you enough momentum to keep going even if you end up discarding its original output completely
> Action leads to motivation, not the other way around.
For me, this sounds a bit tautological. Of course the opposite of procrastination is action.
It’s similar to saying, “If you want to lose weight, just eat less.” It’s certainly true on a meta level, but very difficult for some people to implement.
No - it’s aimed at people who say they can’t do x because they aren’t in the right headspace/feeling creative/they’re too tired, they will do it when inspiration strikes. People who are waiting for some uncontrollable muse before they finally write their novel, and waiting until they feel like a creative person to start taking drawing lessons, or waiting til the essay idea jumps fully formed into their head before they start drafting. That isn’t a description of all procrastination.
It’s about taking small steps to get the flywheel turning, not about “just doing it.” You need small wins to build up motivation for the bigger, more complicated tasks.
If you want to lose weight but don’t feel motivated, it might be because you associate getting started with a strict workout routine and highly restrictive dieting. But taking smaller steps in the right direction can spark motivation. From my own experience, I know I naturally start eating healthier as soon as I get back into running.
"If you want to lose weight, just eat less" is not as tautological as you may think. Many people don't actually know that if you just eat the same calories as someone 20 lbs lighter than you, you will eventually weigh 20 lbs lighter, that you don't need to "do" anything else to shed those 20 lbs.
This isn't really true, everyone has a different basal metabolic rate, and effectiveness with absorbing calories from food can vary as well. Even small differences can add up to large effects, the difference between being at net-zero, or having caloric surplus or deficit every day.
That said, in practice it may be reasonable advice on average, but there's also a problem where it's not very practical to eat the "same" calories as someone else, unless they are together with you all the time.
As someone with fast metabolism who struggled to gain weight: I get that, but at the same time, understanding that there's trial and error with your own body but is ultimately all about input and output does more good than saying "haha I just have fast/slow rate looool" as justification for not taking care of yourself.
I do not know much or anything about your situation, but here is one thing that might work.
I would suggest picking a fixed point in time every week. At this point in time you will finish (if they are small enough, otherwise split in multiple steps) on of these chores/repairs. E.g., every Saturday afternoon from 1 am you will finish one of these. The rest of the time you then do not need to think about these which is your reward for doing one chore/repair.
Everyday I have to prepare dinner and put the plates, glasses, forks and knifes in the table, and, I don't know why, get that feeling that I'd rather do anything else (or, most times, nothing at all). So I always start everything by putting the towel in the table (don't know if it's called like that in EN, not a native speaker). It seems to click something and the rest follows.
Maybe the idea can help you starting things?
It also helps that, sometimes, when the tasks are big, I convince myself that I can finish it later. Many times I do not have to finish it later..
Is the towel for wiping your mouth? If so I'd call that a napkin. If the plate goes on top of it it's more a placemats. If serving dishes get set out on it and it runs the length the table, a runner.
Related to taking tiny steps, I've set up a daily habit checklist with the lowest bar possible, even lower than the author's suggested log statement. When it comes to software dev, it's just "open my IDE and look at my notes for what to do next". This usually just takes 10 seconds, but it's the first step in starting and usually leads to me doing at least a bit more, so it's helpful when I'm at my lowest in terms of energy. And even if I do nothing else, I get some satisfaction that I at least completed my to-do and did a tiny bit more than nothing for the day.
++ for the “lowest bar” and constantly negotiate with oneself on if every line is still valuable and brings profit and not despair.
Like “brush teeth”, “do nothing at all for half an hour after work” “remove trash photos for the day in the phone”, “finish working” (here I have a detailed sublist ending with “close computer lid”)
“move todos I did not have time for today to tomorrow”
another cool habit is “I did list”: add items that you did that were not planned, because we sometimes forget why we did not do something “planned”, because we actually did something else important that we are just blind to when “planning”. for example, “meal”, “took some rest that I actually need”, “took out trash”, “told someone irritating to fuck off” etc etc
In defence of procrastination, perhaps there are good reasons for failing to have enthusiasm for whatever-it-is. Perhaps trying to do something but being unable to muster the energy is an indication that this is not the thing you really ought to be doing. That the thing you believe to be a worthy goal is itself a false goal, and not where your heart is at, and that you need to take a second, deeper look.
There is a lot of truth in what you’re saying I believe.
At least, in the “cadence of work”. They say in the article about consistent productivity for example. But lets think about consistency and quantitative productivity (ie amount of work per day).
of course we are pressured to be “consistently highly productive”. But is it healthy and sustainable for everyone? Probably not. So I would start with “consistently bare minimum productive” and not demand more from myself. If I demand more, the “procrastination” kicks in, because my body knows that it needs rest and relaxation.
we are not robots: work for us and not we for work.
I agree. I even see support of this in the seasons. If you think about the difference in light between summer and winter, it is far more natural to be up and about when there is more light, and far more likely to be 'lazy' in the winter. The workweek however is constant, even though the quality of time is entirely different. So, in this example 'time' throughout the year is not the same - feeling less energetic in winter is perfectly acceptable, and not a problem.
You can characterise this real factor (quality of time over the year) as 'procrastination' but I think this is unfair. Other factors such as joy/depression, meaning in work, personal circumstances, etc also come in to play. But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination.
Wow! You probably just opened my eyes to the “spring productivity boost” pattern clearly observed in my life :)
> But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination.
exactly! And even rhyming some other thread here, this might happen if “work” is procrastination for the life itself. I honestly feel myself here now: work figured out as process, but life… oh my I better go write some code.
It’s like you’re cornered: you’re like deer in the headlights concerned with “work”, if you’re not “productive”, you devalue yourself completely. It could happen if you chose work as your primary value long before you realized that the same patterns will lead you into the corner inside work itself.
It’s like running away from one world to another to another until there is no further escape. Then hopefully, you start to find the way back, because you have the Ariadne’s thread in your hands.
sure, but it was the only thing paying at the time. so what choice did i have? my heart is on building my own project, but to do that i'd have to be independently wealthy, or save up at least 50k so that i can afford to be without an income for a year. at least i learned something so if i managed to focus on that i could get some motivation going.
The older I get, the more I realize there's no point. I'll never be rich. I'll never have a family. I'll never go to space. I'll never take part in Olympics. Best I can do is beating a video game on medium. So I try to focus on that, instead of spending 80% of my life trying to make myself 20% more productive.
Regarding the family part. Don’t feel terribly bas about not having a family. There is the possibility of a divorce and the resulting court ordered payments that can be far more devastating. It’s simply too hard to keep someone else happy all the time. Frustrations add up, more fights, more insults, more angry words. As humans I don’t think we can ever be happy.
On a serious note, you never actually _know_ that e.g. you'll never be rich. E.g. KFC founder was ~62 years old when they founded the company. The median age of (successful) founders is also roughly 40, if not more.
see my comment above. i know that i'll never be rich, nor do i want to, because trying to get rich it would interfere with how i want to live my life...
i'll never be rich either, and contrary to the KFC founder who got rich very late it is not lack of opportunity but lack of motivation to be rich. as soon as i earn some money i'll spend it on hiring others to help me build what i want, or if it is enough, even stop earning money to focus on my interests.
family is trickier. finding the right partner is very hard. it takes a lot of introspection and being able to recognize flaws in yourself and in your partner. it took me decades to understand what i need in a partner. and now i feel like i'd rather stay alone than have a partner that doesn't fill my needs. that sounds very selfish, but it goes of course both ways, i also look at the needs of my partner and evaluate whether i can fulfill those needs. (in short it's about compatible goals. many chinese women for example just want their husband to be successful and enable a comfortable life. fortunately the woman i found didn't because as i said above, that's just not a life goal for me)
when you mention space, the olympics and video games i get the impression that those are not even your real goals, and you are more likely lamenting that you feel like you don't have anything to strive for.
as i wrote above, it took me decades, not just to understand what i need in a partner, but simply what i need in life. the interesting thing is that now that i think i understand that, actually fulfilling that need became less important. understanding myself helped me detach.
as for beating procrastination, for me it's not about increasing productivity but being productive at all. it's not just 20%, it's 200% or more. it's about keeping that job and doing enough to get leads for the next one.
"Across a decade working at hypergrowth tech companies like Meta and Pinterest, I constantly struggled with procrastination [...] I was not making progress on the things that mattered."
Maybe unless one can really convince themselves that their daily work matters (really matters and not just for their team/company metrics) one is bound to procrastinate as a symptom of some subconscious sense of pointlessness.
Yep, it's hard to summon genuine motivation when, deep down, something feels meaningless. You can build all the productivity systems in the world, but if the work itself feels hollow...
Relentlessly trying to lock up as much of the world's information as possible behind your login wall, I'd be struggling with procrastination as well.
Maybe the answer isn't so much finding new tricks to play on your mind, but finding something to do that doesn't involve codifying more power in the strong leader, to increase his masculinity in the worklace or whatever the political issue du jour is.
Power and control over people's lives and public image is what they get off on, how can anyone feel like they have purpose working on that is beyond me, so it's true that innovation would be thwarted by procrastination - if they give them the "next big thing" it'll be monopolized and weaponized rather than given to the people like tcp/ip initially was. The key term is decentralization, and it's being blown up in favor of locked up datacenters behind layers of digital policing.
The problem starts later in life, when a person starts misjudging both time/resources needed to rush complete a task and consequences of failing it.
Failing practically anything during the study in the university is a laughing matter. Worst case you have wasted 6 years on partying and got nothing in return, maybe some debt too if it was in the USA. Failing a task later in life may lead to jail time, deportation, divorce, eviction, homelessness etc. So getting familiar with procrastination and letting it get more severe with years is recipe for disaster.
I think almost everybody has procrastination problems of some degree from time to time. Especially in occupations that need concentration on complicated things.
But procrastination problems don't mean infinite procrastination. It's just that work keeps piling up and then it has to be done in a burst when it has to really be done. I find this doesn't necessarily mean my output is less (in the short term), it's just that it's exhausting.
Also productivity requirements at work, no matter how fancy workolace, are typically way less than you may think. Just showing up and not actively cause grief goes a long way.
What you tend to see publicly is people in their productive phases, or quite exceptional outliers, or just messaging.
I think the programmers in most environments aren't judged based on some hard metrics that could say someone procrastinated half of the time and could have done twice as much.
Most judgement comes from remembering whether anything has been done at all, and if yes then whether it was sunbathing of quality. People (I at least) will rate higher someone who worked less but contributed higher quality code. Also good contributions to discussion, mentoring juniors is something a procrastinator might not even think is work but is valued highly.
And even while procrastinating some part of your brain often thinks about problem so the time isn't completely lost.
All in all procrastinators aren't as bad as it sounds unless we get into some deep pathology.
I made similar comments on this site alluding to how when I went into this field, I thought I was going to be working with passionate people that truly cared about the craft. I was met with the rude reality that none of my coworkers care about this craft in the slightest, and it is all merely just an ends to a means for them. Now, I do not necessarily blame my coworkers. Passion is not really within one's control.
For the sake of analogy, I feel like I wanted to be a photographer and take beautiful and artistic pictures, but in reality, I just take school pictures for a living.
Now, I do believe there are passionate jobs with passionate programmers out there, but:
1. I do not know where nor with whom one would even find such roles.
2. My lack of skill would be more burdensome than helpful for such teams. I'm not new either. I've been at this game for over a decade now.
So, I am stuck in this procrastination loop -- I lack the skills to better my situation, but I also feel so far behind that I, at some level, believe I am incapable of ever being able to find/retain such a job.
Long story short, I am not sure what your particular reasons are for procrastinating, but brother/sister, I don't blame you one bit for it.
My lack of skill would be more burdensome than helpful for such teams. I'm not new either. I've been at this game for over a decade now.
seems like you are also suffering from imposter syndrome. if you have been doing this for over a decade you should have learned something.
I lack the skills to better my situation
practice. work on a side project. follow and implement tutorials. contribute to FOSS projects. (contact me if you want some suggestions. see my profile)
My boss met with me this week to have me finish something important to get done by Friday. That really kicked me into gear this week and I was very motivated and productive. Come Friday, no message, no more push from him, no mention of how he needs my work or asking how it's going. That instantly tanked my motivation to continue
in situations like this i forgive them if the only effect is that i get work done faster without downsides to my other activities/responsibilities. priorities change. if less procrastination is the only sideeffect i am not complaining.
> Come Friday, no message [...] tanked my motivation to continue
I see the bookends, but notice the root cause
> That really kicked me into gear [...] I was very motivated and productive
You don't have intrinsic motivation for these tasks and the job. This is the thread to pull on. Keep asking "why?"
In the least, I recommend a pro-active note, letting him know you're done and ready for his feedback on the assignment or new priorities. Figure out why he didn't (or persistently doesn't) follow-up.
I've found that sometimes the first action doesn't even have to involve directly working on the problem, just trying to write down a series of actions you need to take in a todo list can unblock you mentally.
Sometimes I can trick myself into getting started that way.
The trick is to come up with a tiny goal and give yourself permission to quit once you reach it so it’s not like your overwhelmed by the full task.
The smallness of the task is important, but it’s even more important that you genuinely give yourself permission to stop when it’s done. If you don’t do that, it’s not “one small task”, it’s “step one in a big task” and you’ll keep procrastinating
For coding it’s a sequence of:
“Ill just get all the software and documentation open and organized”
“I’ll create a few empty files on a new branch”
“I’ll just stub out a few things I KNOW I’ll need”
…
For other non-code writing, I’ve occasionally been able to hack it in a similar way by writing progressively more detailed outlines.
For physical projects, sometimes it’s just about gathering supplies and organizing tools.
The "action precedes motivation" idea is underrated. I've definitely found that once I take that first tiny step (open the file, write the first test, whatever), things start to flow. It's weirdly easy to forget that when you're stuck in that doom-scroll-procrastinate spiral.
To me, procrastination is the brain overestimating (or perhaps just estimating) the unpleasantness of a task in the future. The unpleasantness could come from general lack of pleasure in performing the task, anticipation of frustration or irritation due to a gap in the skills or resources required, anxiety about not being able to successfully complete the task, or the output of the task not meeting one's personal expectations.
One example for me is getting out of the house: I loathe the idea of getting dressed, getting into the car and driving, whenever I contemplate it, but once I'm behind the wheel, the thought always is "this isn't so bad". If I think about the getting dressed bit, that too, thought of in isolation, isn't so bad. It seems it is the anticipation of a seemingly complex sequence of tasks that tend to put the brain off.
It is normal to struggle with procrastination from time to time but if is a regular occurrence you need to check the actual causes.
You might have ADHD.
And is is very important to know whether you have it or not because all that advice for neurotypical people will not work for you then. In fact it will harm you. It will make you feel as a failure.
You need to figure out how your brain works and only then you will finally manage to make lasting changes.
>What’s an example of the kind of advice that doesn’t work?
For some people struggling with chronic lifelong procrastination, the oft-repeated advice from the author such as "Action leads to motivation, not the other way around." ... and similar variants such as, "Screw motivation, what you need is discipline!" ... and other related big picture ideas such as Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams' "Systems instead of Goals"
-- all do not work.
And adding extra rhetorical embellishments to the advice such as using the phrase "it's simple [...]", and using the word "[...] just [...]" as in:
- "Stopping procrastination isn't that hard to solve. It's simple. Just chop up the task into much smaller subtasks and just start on that tiny subtask. That will give you momentum to finish it."
... also doesn't work. Some procrastinators just procrastinate the initiation of starting that tiny subtask! For the few that actually do try to start with that first step, they'll quickly lose steam because of boredom/distraction/whatever and the overall task remains unfinished.
A lot of books and blogs about time management repeat the same advice that many procrastinators have all heard before and it doesn't work. The procrastinators understand the logic of the advice but it doesn't matter because there are psychological roadblocks that prevent them from following it.
EDIT reply to: >That doesn't mean the advice is bad,
I'm not saying the advice is wrong. Instead, I'm saying that some well-meaning people who give that repeated advice seem surprised that it doesn't work on some people. Because the advice givers believed "Action Precedes Motivation" worked on themselves, they automatically assume that imparting those same words to other procrastinators will also work. It often doesn't. The meta-analysis of that advice and why it sometimes doesn't work is not done because the people giving that advice are the ones who used that technique successfully. This creates a self-confirmation bias.
isn't the problem here that the answer is very individual. for me for example some of the above things do work, and some don't. some of the time. it's like it depends and there is no clear answer even just for myself. knowing whether i had ADHD would not make any difference. i'd still not know what works.
for example i have seen tasks lists recommended as one way to deal with ADHD. because the lists help focus. isn't breaking things down into small steps the same thing? others here with ADHD also claim that specific suggestions work for them. so this isn't clear cut, and it doesn't make sense to just dismiss the suggestions.
you are right, there is more than just getting started. boredom and distractions are a problem too. but they are also a problem for "normal" people.
seems to me that the only thing we can do is to list a number of possible approaches, and let everyone pick what works best for them.
so back to the original question: what does work for people with ADHD?
Not for everyone with ADHD. Only for 70% but that is still pretty good.
Besides that, again understanding how their brains work.
Neurotypical people don't have executive dysfunction. If they have a task that they know how to do, have the means to do, know they need to do, have the time to do and want to do, they can... just do it.
In fact neurotypical people can't even imagine it being any other way. For me with ADHD this sounds like a super power that I can't even comprehend having.
To simplify it very much, the ADHD brain is chronically understimultated. It lacks dopamine.
So easy boring tasks can be insanely painful. That is why stimulants work so well. It is not to get us "high", it so so we get the same level of stimulation as a neurotypical person watching paint dry.
But, we can still get over-stimulated as well so it is a balance act.
Neurotypical people mostly manage time and exhaustion, I guess but managing ADHD is managing your level of stimulation and focus and time tertiary.
You need to build activities into your routine that stimulate you, both mentally and physically. Washing your clothing can be much more taxing for you that fixing that complex bug no one else can figure out. ADHD can make the hard things easy and the easy things hard.
So yeah, ultimately every human is different and what works for one might not work for another. Yes some advice or trick for neurotypical people might also work for someone with ADHD but if you don't understand yourself you will not know what to user and what to dismiss and only hurt yourself.
If somebody had “lifelong procrastination” and was routinely overwhelmed by simple tasks, my first thought would be to see if they are actually dealing with depression because it sounds like something bigger.
How is depression "bigger" that ADHD? That sounds super invalidating.
Being overwhelmed with simple task is typical ADHD behavior.
Lots of people with untreated ADHD develop depression as well. It is not either/or. Not to mention that there is a overlap in symptoms as well.
A diagnosis for ADHD will make sure that there no other physical or mental things present that could explain the symptoms instead. The will try to exclude anything else that could explain your struggles. They check for stuff like depression.
On the other hand, a depression diagnosis is just given out like candy. I never understood that.
Why wouldn't you ask WHY someone is depressed in the first place? I don't mean to invalidate people that are depressed. Sometimes that is just what is going on but it still vexes me because so many neurodivergent people will get diagnosis like "depression" because health care providers refuse to look further into it.
It is such an uphill battle get diagnosed with ADHD.
This looks like an answer from a procrastinator that actually developed a system to ensure they continue procrastinating long-term. Sure, suggestions of systems that could help with that won't help without a sometimes descomunal effort. That doesn't mean the advice is bad, just that it's hard and most people won't be able to overcome lifelong procrastination.
Your brain does not work the same way as my brain works. I am sorry, I know this is hard to believe but you will develop some actual emphathy once you accept the fact.
General advice for running a marathon will not for for someone who has no legs. I can't will my brain to work differently than it does. I can just learn to cope with my ADHD brain. And you being judgemental about it will not change that.
> Your brain does not work the same way as my brain works. I am sorry, I know this is hard to believe but you will develop some actual emphathy once you accept the fact.
I am also sorry but I do have ADHD and I'm no different than any other human being, and so aren't you. Many people just deal with it much better than you, but at least it means it is possible. Nobody said it is easy but people with ADHD have a tendency to think that people doing what they need to do have it easy, "they just do it". Well, no. That is not how it works. It is hard for everybody.
I am sorry but the reality is that most people in this world do not have any executive dysfunction. They can just do things.
They often do not want to do things. They will often choose to do the easy or more pleasant task but they do not have the same struggle someone with ADHD has.
The world is not fair. Yes, you can still achieve your goals with ADHD but you will have to go about it differently. The first step is in accepting yourself and leaning into your strengths and weaknesses.
Now that attitude is just mean to people with ADHD. Attitude like that is one of the reasons why people with ADHD like me, have to needlessly suffer in a society dismissing my mental disorder or pretending it doesn't exist.
Your points are well taken, though I want to nuance them a bit. My experience(with severe ADHD-C) is that this type of advice can work. It's just that it's not something you can just decide to start doing and immediately find success at. It's just a lot more complicated to get this off the ground, but it's possible. For some complex organisational system, you need to compile that system into "ADHD byte code" and for that, you need to bootstrap a compiler. Create an incredibly simple, extensible system which can do things your ADHD brain can't on its own. Then you need to find ways to force yourself to follow that system using various hacks like alarms tied to QR codes, body doubling, regular therapy or home visits, etc. then you can start implementing more complex structure in that system. And even the simple system is not gonna be easy. It's gonna take months of trying, failing, starting over. The ADHD brain is absolutely capable of developing habits(just look at the comorbidity rates between ADHD and various types of addiction), it's just a lot of work.
I'm in the process of doing this myself, and after 8 months, with many setbacks, I kinda have a base system I'm following that's significantly improving my quality of life and ability to keep up with everyday tasks. And it's still a struggle, but it's getting easier.
I'm writing a blog post about it currently, which will be more structured. It's about how I used my software dev skills to think about and tackle my ADHD(and other issues). Not about writing actual software(although software is involved), but imagining the brain exhibiting ADHD is a software system , identifying the "bugs", and combining concepts from software dev and behavioral/cognitive psychology to fix, or at least mitigate them.
This blog post could be finished two days from now, two years from now, or never. ADHD is still hard to live with, and I'm still quite dysfunctional. I guess if I do finish it, it'll be worth reading since I'll be on to something...
better yet, share the link to your blog if you don't mind making it public so we can follow it and find the post when it's ready. (in my case you can also email me (see my profile) and i'll keep it to myself)
So since none of these things work and you're framing ADHD as being such that even getting basic tasks done can lead to failure, what do you suggest that might work?
I'm honestly curious, because I can't believe that a person having the problem this bad should just resign themselves to a life of misery and failure.
ADHD is so stigmatized now that you cannot with a straight face tell someone "I have ADD" without getting an eye roll, unfortunately. many won't believe you were correctly diagnosed
I've also found that there's no real cure for it. You can take the meds but they'll chip away at your personality and health in other ways.
I used to think that being diagnosed would not change much but for me it did. A lot. Just having more knowledge about myself has been extremely empowering. Even just knowing myself that I have it helps me be kinder to myself.
Also there is ADHD coaching. Having someone who had ADHD themselves coach me through my problems was an absolute game changer.
Maybe that could be an option for you as well. Worked much better that traditional therapy for me personally.
As for medication, well for most people with ADHD it works really well and is worth the relative mild side effect. But that is most, for some it does not work unfortunately. I think it is always worth trying but yeah it is no silver bullet that works for everyone.
It's not stigmatized, more like reverse. It's "normalized" and neurotypical people just dismiss it outright, as a "play-pretend illness". Also it become a "fashionable" diagnosis. People who don't have it pretend that it brings them closer to a focused genius Sherlock Holmes or similar characters, which is completely wrong in 99.9% of the cases.
I would argue the other way around. I have ADHD, but the thing that really helped me with work procrastination, which I think would help even without ADHD, was to find a job that is actually interesting.
In approx 7 years I went through working at all the top software companies in my country, but what really fixed my problems was moving on to being a researcher at the university. I’m now paid less than half from before, but it’s still enough, and I couldn’t be happier.
Getting to work on what I think is actually important and interesting every day is what helped. I also seem happier than the younger researchers who didn’t work at companies first, who don’t know how good they have it.
> Across a decade working at hypergrowth tech companies like Meta and Pinterest, I constantly struggled with procrastination
I used to procrastinate a lot when I was a PhD student and later in academia. Sometimes, it was literally weeks of doing nothing and stressing out.
I eventually migrated to big tech and I now rarely procrastinate. We have pretty tangible goals, good results are rewarded and lack of results would raise concerns pretty quickly.
In my case, working in the right environment helped a lot with procrastination.
It's good to read this while being in one of those nothing-months myself. I have extended the deadlines and my goals are not clear.
Incidentally, I have a supervisor who felt the exact same way when he was doing his PhD and fled to industry. Evidently he found that there was something to be enjoyed in the freedoms of research and returned.
Some great comments in this thread and I agree, a lot of it comes down to understanding yourself.
In my case, not always, but often, procrastination shows up when fear is involved. Fear of failure, of not doing something perfectly, of the task being too big. What’s helped me is turning the task into a challenge, because I know that personally, I thrive on challenges. It re-frames the fear into something exciting, and once I get started, I follow all of the other advice such like breaking it down into small steps. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve had a similar experience. If it’s a “I must do” with high stakes, I get a fear of failure, fear of disappointing and if left unchecked it unfortunately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, challenges that start with “I wonder if”—like wondering if some bold idea just might actually be possible—give me a huge reservoir of energy to work well beyond my normal limits and find new solution that truly make a difference.
Of course in most projects, actual innovation is only a fraction of the work so some reframing of “run the business” tasks is necessary. That’s when I tap into gratitude: for being able to work on a project, for being entrusted with a particular task, etc.
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The same approach helps me with tasks outside of software development, and even outside of work.
When there are no clear tasks, I sometime leave a syntax error at the place work should continue tomorrow. This is quite effective. It can make the answer to the "Where was I?" question immediate instead of taking a few seconds and this is one fewer barrier.
It's also useful to jot down a quick list of (say) three items that are at the top of your mind when you leave work for the day, and they too will help with a context restore.
The magic of Git means you can immediately find them in the working index and get back on to it. Just remember to remove them before the commit.
How does git help you find certain texts in files? `grep` should do the trick just fine, unless I misunderstand what "chuck Todo comments in the code" mean, the code lives on your disk no?
Grep will find them too, but any in the diff you'll know for sure were added by you.
And why it matters to get them from the diff if they're on disk already? Literally one command to find all of them, rather than going through git?
To search for all mentions of 'TODO' in the repo, ignoring untracked files:
or, case insensitive variant:Basically, my assumption is that `gq` should return empty, which means I have a clean slate, and can start taking on new work. Otherwise, there is ongoing work that needs attention.
It just lists:
Getting this command to return empty is a surprisingly effective way to stay productive, especially when losing focus due to too much work.It's basically inbox-zero for git.
But it only works if you like working with a clean worktree.
Introducing a syntax error is like a saved game, portal back in time. I'll come back to it tomorrow and it'll take me max one minute to reload the context into my brain.
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fi...
I’m just stating the obvious, but I find it odd that the author states the opposite isn’t true.
In my experience both works and some actors prefer one and some the other. But you can try it yourself, think of a sad thing, slumb together make a sad gesture and listen (emotionally) what happens on the inside.
For me, this sounds a bit tautological. Of course the opposite of procrastination is action.
It’s similar to saying, “If you want to lose weight, just eat less.” It’s certainly true on a meta level, but very difficult for some people to implement.
If you want to lose weight but don’t feel motivated, it might be because you associate getting started with a strict workout routine and highly restrictive dieting. But taking smaller steps in the right direction can spark motivation. From my own experience, I know I naturally start eating healthier as soon as I get back into running.
That said, in practice it may be reasonable advice on average, but there's also a problem where it's not very practical to eat the "same" calories as someone else, unless they are together with you all the time.
I would suggest picking a fixed point in time every week. At this point in time you will finish (if they are small enough, otherwise split in multiple steps) on of these chores/repairs. E.g., every Saturday afternoon from 1 am you will finish one of these. The rest of the time you then do not need to think about these which is your reward for doing one chore/repair.
Maybe the idea can help you starting things?
It also helps that, sometimes, when the tasks are big, I convince myself that I can finish it later. Many times I do not have to finish it later..
Like “brush teeth”, “do nothing at all for half an hour after work” “remove trash photos for the day in the phone”, “finish working” (here I have a detailed sublist ending with “close computer lid”) “move todos I did not have time for today to tomorrow”
another cool habit is “I did list”: add items that you did that were not planned, because we sometimes forget why we did not do something “planned”, because we actually did something else important that we are just blind to when “planning”. for example, “meal”, “took some rest that I actually need”, “took out trash”, “told someone irritating to fuck off” etc etc
Or maybe that is just another excuse :)
of course we are pressured to be “consistently highly productive”. But is it healthy and sustainable for everyone? Probably not. So I would start with “consistently bare minimum productive” and not demand more from myself. If I demand more, the “procrastination” kicks in, because my body knows that it needs rest and relaxation.
we are not robots: work for us and not we for work.
You can characterise this real factor (quality of time over the year) as 'procrastination' but I think this is unfair. Other factors such as joy/depression, meaning in work, personal circumstances, etc also come in to play. But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination.
> But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination.
exactly! And even rhyming some other thread here, this might happen if “work” is procrastination for the life itself. I honestly feel myself here now: work figured out as process, but life… oh my I better go write some code.
It’s like you’re cornered: you’re like deer in the headlights concerned with “work”, if you’re not “productive”, you devalue yourself completely. It could happen if you chose work as your primary value long before you realized that the same patterns will lead you into the corner inside work itself.
It’s like running away from one world to another to another until there is no further escape. Then hopefully, you start to find the way back, because you have the Ariadne’s thread in your hands.
Good luck to us all :)
It's definitely going to be too hard as it is imo simply not possible and is a non-goal for a marriage.
family is trickier. finding the right partner is very hard. it takes a lot of introspection and being able to recognize flaws in yourself and in your partner. it took me decades to understand what i need in a partner. and now i feel like i'd rather stay alone than have a partner that doesn't fill my needs. that sounds very selfish, but it goes of course both ways, i also look at the needs of my partner and evaluate whether i can fulfill those needs. (in short it's about compatible goals. many chinese women for example just want their husband to be successful and enable a comfortable life. fortunately the woman i found didn't because as i said above, that's just not a life goal for me)
when you mention space, the olympics and video games i get the impression that those are not even your real goals, and you are more likely lamenting that you feel like you don't have anything to strive for.
as i wrote above, it took me decades, not just to understand what i need in a partner, but simply what i need in life. the interesting thing is that now that i think i understand that, actually fulfilling that need became less important. understanding myself helped me detach.
as for beating procrastination, for me it's not about increasing productivity but being productive at all. it's not just 20%, it's 200% or more. it's about keeping that job and doing enough to get leads for the next one.
Maybe unless one can really convince themselves that their daily work matters (really matters and not just for their team/company metrics) one is bound to procrastinate as a symptom of some subconscious sense of pointlessness.
Maybe the answer isn't so much finding new tricks to play on your mind, but finding something to do that doesn't involve codifying more power in the strong leader, to increase his masculinity in the worklace or whatever the political issue du jour is.
Failing practically anything during the study in the university is a laughing matter. Worst case you have wasted 6 years on partying and got nothing in return, maybe some debt too if it was in the USA. Failing a task later in life may lead to jail time, deportation, divorce, eviction, homelessness etc. So getting familiar with procrastination and letting it get more severe with years is recipe for disaster.
I procrastinated so badly I could never apply for jobs. And the jobs I did get I lost quickly due to the same procrastination.
But procrastination problems don't mean infinite procrastination. It's just that work keeps piling up and then it has to be done in a burst when it has to really be done. I find this doesn't necessarily mean my output is less (in the short term), it's just that it's exhausting.
Also productivity requirements at work, no matter how fancy workolace, are typically way less than you may think. Just showing up and not actively cause grief goes a long way.
What you tend to see publicly is people in their productive phases, or quite exceptional outliers, or just messaging.
I think the programmers in most environments aren't judged based on some hard metrics that could say someone procrastinated half of the time and could have done twice as much.
Most judgement comes from remembering whether anything has been done at all, and if yes then whether it was sunbathing of quality. People (I at least) will rate higher someone who worked less but contributed higher quality code. Also good contributions to discussion, mentoring juniors is something a procrastinator might not even think is work but is valued highly.
And even while procrastinating some part of your brain often thinks about problem so the time isn't completely lost.
All in all procrastinators aren't as bad as it sounds unless we get into some deep pathology.
For the sake of analogy, I feel like I wanted to be a photographer and take beautiful and artistic pictures, but in reality, I just take school pictures for a living.
Now, I do believe there are passionate jobs with passionate programmers out there, but:
1. I do not know where nor with whom one would even find such roles.
2. My lack of skill would be more burdensome than helpful for such teams. I'm not new either. I've been at this game for over a decade now.
So, I am stuck in this procrastination loop -- I lack the skills to better my situation, but I also feel so far behind that I, at some level, believe I am incapable of ever being able to find/retain such a job.
Long story short, I am not sure what your particular reasons are for procrastinating, but brother/sister, I don't blame you one bit for it.
seems like you are also suffering from imposter syndrome. if you have been doing this for over a decade you should have learned something.
I lack the skills to better my situation
practice. work on a side project. follow and implement tutorials. contribute to FOSS projects. (contact me if you want some suggestions. see my profile)
I see the bookends, but notice the root cause
> That really kicked me into gear [...] I was very motivated and productive
You don't have intrinsic motivation for these tasks and the job. This is the thread to pull on. Keep asking "why?"
In the least, I recommend a pro-active note, letting him know you're done and ready for his feedback on the assignment or new priorities. Figure out why he didn't (or persistently doesn't) follow-up.
But sometimes it's not inaction we're choosing against; it's discomfort.
In that case, this becomes simplistic.
The trick is to come up with a tiny goal and give yourself permission to quit once you reach it so it’s not like your overwhelmed by the full task.
The smallness of the task is important, but it’s even more important that you genuinely give yourself permission to stop when it’s done. If you don’t do that, it’s not “one small task”, it’s “step one in a big task” and you’ll keep procrastinating
For coding it’s a sequence of: “Ill just get all the software and documentation open and organized”
“I’ll create a few empty files on a new branch”
“I’ll just stub out a few things I KNOW I’ll need”
…
For other non-code writing, I’ve occasionally been able to hack it in a similar way by writing progressively more detailed outlines.
For physical projects, sometimes it’s just about gathering supplies and organizing tools.
One example for me is getting out of the house: I loathe the idea of getting dressed, getting into the car and driving, whenever I contemplate it, but once I'm behind the wheel, the thought always is "this isn't so bad". If I think about the getting dressed bit, that too, thought of in isolation, isn't so bad. It seems it is the anticipation of a seemingly complex sequence of tasks that tend to put the brain off.
You might have ADHD.
And is is very important to know whether you have it or not because all that advice for neurotypical people will not work for you then. In fact it will harm you. It will make you feel as a failure.
You need to figure out how your brain works and only then you will finally manage to make lasting changes.
(I’m always curious to learn other potential diagnostic markers for adhd)
For some people struggling with chronic lifelong procrastination, the oft-repeated advice from the author such as "Action leads to motivation, not the other way around." ... and similar variants such as, "Screw motivation, what you need is discipline!" ... and other related big picture ideas such as Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams' "Systems instead of Goals" -- all do not work.
And adding extra rhetorical embellishments to the advice such as using the phrase "it's simple [...]", and using the word "[...] just [...]" as in:
- "Stopping procrastination isn't that hard to solve. It's simple. Just chop up the task into much smaller subtasks and just start on that tiny subtask. That will give you momentum to finish it."
... also doesn't work. Some procrastinators just procrastinate the initiation of starting that tiny subtask! For the few that actually do try to start with that first step, they'll quickly lose steam because of boredom/distraction/whatever and the overall task remains unfinished.
A lot of books and blogs about time management repeat the same advice that many procrastinators have all heard before and it doesn't work. The procrastinators understand the logic of the advice but it doesn't matter because there are psychological roadblocks that prevent them from following it.
EDIT reply to: >That doesn't mean the advice is bad,
I'm not saying the advice is wrong. Instead, I'm saying that some well-meaning people who give that repeated advice seem surprised that it doesn't work on some people. Because the advice givers believed "Action Precedes Motivation" worked on themselves, they automatically assume that imparting those same words to other procrastinators will also work. It often doesn't. The meta-analysis of that advice and why it sometimes doesn't work is not done because the people giving that advice are the ones who used that technique successfully. This creates a self-confirmation bias.
isn't the problem here that the answer is very individual. for me for example some of the above things do work, and some don't. some of the time. it's like it depends and there is no clear answer even just for myself. knowing whether i had ADHD would not make any difference. i'd still not know what works.
for example i have seen tasks lists recommended as one way to deal with ADHD. because the lists help focus. isn't breaking things down into small steps the same thing? others here with ADHD also claim that specific suggestions work for them. so this isn't clear cut, and it doesn't make sense to just dismiss the suggestions.
you are right, there is more than just getting started. boredom and distractions are a problem too. but they are also a problem for "normal" people.
seems to me that the only thing we can do is to list a number of possible approaches, and let everyone pick what works best for them.
so back to the original question: what does work for people with ADHD?
Medication.
Not for everyone with ADHD. Only for 70% but that is still pretty good.
Besides that, again understanding how their brains work.
Neurotypical people don't have executive dysfunction. If they have a task that they know how to do, have the means to do, know they need to do, have the time to do and want to do, they can... just do it.
In fact neurotypical people can't even imagine it being any other way. For me with ADHD this sounds like a super power that I can't even comprehend having.
To simplify it very much, the ADHD brain is chronically understimultated. It lacks dopamine.
So easy boring tasks can be insanely painful. That is why stimulants work so well. It is not to get us "high", it so so we get the same level of stimulation as a neurotypical person watching paint dry.
But, we can still get over-stimulated as well so it is a balance act.
Neurotypical people mostly manage time and exhaustion, I guess but managing ADHD is managing your level of stimulation and focus and time tertiary.
You need to build activities into your routine that stimulate you, both mentally and physically. Washing your clothing can be much more taxing for you that fixing that complex bug no one else can figure out. ADHD can make the hard things easy and the easy things hard.
So yeah, ultimately every human is different and what works for one might not work for another. Yes some advice or trick for neurotypical people might also work for someone with ADHD but if you don't understand yourself you will not know what to user and what to dismiss and only hurt yourself.
Being overwhelmed with simple task is typical ADHD behavior.
Lots of people with untreated ADHD develop depression as well. It is not either/or. Not to mention that there is a overlap in symptoms as well.
A diagnosis for ADHD will make sure that there no other physical or mental things present that could explain the symptoms instead. The will try to exclude anything else that could explain your struggles. They check for stuff like depression.
On the other hand, a depression diagnosis is just given out like candy. I never understood that.
Why wouldn't you ask WHY someone is depressed in the first place? I don't mean to invalidate people that are depressed. Sometimes that is just what is going on but it still vexes me because so many neurodivergent people will get diagnosis like "depression" because health care providers refuse to look further into it.
It is such an uphill battle get diagnosed with ADHD.
Turns out, unmedicated ADHD, procrastination, and depression are all comorbid
General advice for running a marathon will not for for someone who has no legs. I can't will my brain to work differently than it does. I can just learn to cope with my ADHD brain. And you being judgemental about it will not change that.
I am also sorry but I do have ADHD and I'm no different than any other human being, and so aren't you. Many people just deal with it much better than you, but at least it means it is possible. Nobody said it is easy but people with ADHD have a tendency to think that people doing what they need to do have it easy, "they just do it". Well, no. That is not how it works. It is hard for everybody.
They often do not want to do things. They will often choose to do the easy or more pleasant task but they do not have the same struggle someone with ADHD has.
The world is not fair. Yes, you can still achieve your goals with ADHD but you will have to go about it differently. The first step is in accepting yourself and leaning into your strengths and weaknesses.
I'm in the process of doing this myself, and after 8 months, with many setbacks, I kinda have a base system I'm following that's significantly improving my quality of life and ability to keep up with everyday tasks. And it's still a struggle, but it's getting easier.
I'm writing a blog post about it currently, which will be more structured. It's about how I used my software dev skills to think about and tackle my ADHD(and other issues). Not about writing actual software(although software is involved), but imagining the brain exhibiting ADHD is a software system , identifying the "bugs", and combining concepts from software dev and behavioral/cognitive psychology to fix, or at least mitigate them.
This blog post could be finished two days from now, two years from now, or never. ADHD is still hard to live with, and I'm still quite dysfunctional. I guess if I do finish it, it'll be worth reading since I'll be on to something...
I'm honestly curious, because I can't believe that a person having the problem this bad should just resign themselves to a life of misery and failure.
I've also found that there's no real cure for it. You can take the meds but they'll chip away at your personality and health in other ways.
Also there is ADHD coaching. Having someone who had ADHD themselves coach me through my problems was an absolute game changer.
Maybe that could be an option for you as well. Worked much better that traditional therapy for me personally.
As for medication, well for most people with ADHD it works really well and is worth the relative mild side effect. But that is most, for some it does not work unfortunately. I think it is always worth trying but yeah it is no silver bullet that works for everyone.
In approx 7 years I went through working at all the top software companies in my country, but what really fixed my problems was moving on to being a researcher at the university. I’m now paid less than half from before, but it’s still enough, and I couldn’t be happier.
Getting to work on what I think is actually important and interesting every day is what helped. I also seem happier than the younger researchers who didn’t work at companies first, who don’t know how good they have it.
I used to procrastinate a lot when I was a PhD student and later in academia. Sometimes, it was literally weeks of doing nothing and stressing out.
I eventually migrated to big tech and I now rarely procrastinate. We have pretty tangible goals, good results are rewarded and lack of results would raise concerns pretty quickly.
In my case, working in the right environment helped a lot with procrastination.
Incidentally, I have a supervisor who felt the exact same way when he was doing his PhD and fled to industry. Evidently he found that there was something to be enjoyed in the freedoms of research and returned.
Sounds more like fear than “not” procrastinating.
But on the other hand fear is a good motivator
In my case, not always, but often, procrastination shows up when fear is involved. Fear of failure, of not doing something perfectly, of the task being too big. What’s helped me is turning the task into a challenge, because I know that personally, I thrive on challenges. It re-frames the fear into something exciting, and once I get started, I follow all of the other advice such like breaking it down into small steps. Thanks for sharing.
However, challenges that start with “I wonder if”—like wondering if some bold idea just might actually be possible—give me a huge reservoir of energy to work well beyond my normal limits and find new solution that truly make a difference.
Of course in most projects, actual innovation is only a fraction of the work so some reframing of “run the business” tasks is necessary. That’s when I tap into gratitude: for being able to work on a project, for being entrusted with a particular task, etc.
Ref: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70